Ep. 609 Watch Out, Here Come the Fake Liberal Narratives
Another terror attack in New York City.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nypd-identifies-bombing-suspect-as-akayed-ullah/article/2643104
A despicable insult to the U.S. by the French Ambassador.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/french-ambassador-bashes-us-over-wwii-committed-awful-mistakes/article/2642964?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets%20-%2012/11/17&utm_medium=email
The Democrats are in full attack-mode on this conservative college.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2017/12/06/leave-hillsdale-alone/108346782/
The Russian Special Counsel has a major problem to deal with.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454515/russian-cyberespionage-does-mueller-have-proof-beyond-reasonable-doubt
The Supreme Court is going to hear a critical gerrymandering case.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bs-md-redistricting-20171208-story.html
Are Bitcoin futures going to stabilize the crypto currency?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-futures/hotly-anticipated-bitcoin-futures-ease-off-after-22-percent-surge-idUSKBN1E404D
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Get ready to hear the truth about America with your host, Dan Bongino.
Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
What the heck is going on in this world, Daniel?
What do I say, folks, all the time for you regular listeners?
You're probably hearing it so much your ears are grating right now, right?
You can't turn away from the television for five minutes!
I had a whole show planned out!
The whole thing!
The whole thing!
I put together this whole thing for you all.
Now I'm gonna get to some of it, but obviously another horrible incident in my native state of New York, my native city of New York City.
Just unbelievable.
These animals just, their entire lives.
You know, thank God these guys are really stupid and their tradecraft is terrible.
For those of you who missed the story and are just waking up.
Guy this morning walks into the Port Authority bus terminal, there's a subway station down there, on a walkway, has some kind of a device, explosive device.
Thank the Lord it detonated apparently prematurely while there weren't that many people around.
Couple of injuries, nothing according to police reports right now.
Life-threatening.
The bomber This idiot, complete zero, disgrace to humankind.
He's like, I mean, subhuman species.
Lift!
Which is good, because when they live, we can interrogate them and interview them and find out what happened.
Was it a radicalization process?
How did they get here?
Were they working with anyone?
Believe it or not, it is actually a good thing when they live because we can hopefully use the information to prevent some of this stuff, you know, Joe, in the future.
Yeah.
So a couple of points on this before I get to some other stories.
It really was a crazy news weekend.
I mean, it really does never stop.
You know, this is it.
Whenever you see the combination of these three entities, you should automatically think terrorism or some nexus to terror, Joe, and that is transportation networks, rush hour, and major cities.
I mean, you have, this is not rocket science, it's just, as I said on Fox & Friends this morning, you know, why do terrorists target transportation networks?
Because if you think about a city like a breathing organism, an entity, the transportation networks are the blood vessels.
You know, just like a human being, you sever a blood vessel and what do you do?
You can hopefully at some point in the future, which is what they think, these sick animals, you will kill off the organism.
That's why transportation networks are so necessary in big cities because people use them to get around.
Most people who commute into New York will do so via a train, a plane, or you know, Very few will come in via automobile.
It's just tough.
New York City's very densely packed.
So if you can attack bus networks, transportation networks, train networks, or planes, you do a lot to cut off an organism.
These guys are tactically doing this.
Secondly, rush hour.
Whenever you see anything happen during rush hour, densely populated times, it's obvious they're doing it for maximum body count, which is what these sick people look for.
Another point I tried to put out this morning is New York City and big cities are obviously a big target.
But the why, I mean, the why matters, folks.
A lot of times we just say that on the air, we assume people know why.
Well, that's where the media markets are.
If you're looking to inspire terror for a political purpose, which is what terrorism is, death and carnage to advance your cause, then you're going to do it where the media outlets are, and the media outlets, Joe, are in New York.
Right.
This is where they are.
They're in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago.
This is where you can get around the world.
I mean, this is why you see them targeting Berlin.
This is why you see them targeting New York City repeatedly.
These are America's big major media markets.
This is what gives them the media attention now.
Why do you need the media attention?
And the why always matters.
It's not just because you want to advance your cause and your sick political, sick terrorist agenda, but it's also the fact that these groups show need two things to survive.
They need recruits and they need financial resources.
And terrorists, like any other group, although they are the sickest folks out there, I think that's obvious, They need that just like other groups do.
They need people to fill their ranks and they need money to buy their equipment, to organize themselves, to get their logistics together.
And the way you do that is by creating attention for your specific group.
So as Trump, and I mean today I want to applaud him for this.
I really mean this.
I mean, he's been doing an incredible job overseas just routing ISIS.
I mean, even the most ardent anti-Trump activists out there, Joe, are starting to recognize, like, gosh, this all happened so fast, Joe!
I mean, we had eight years under Obama where there were some successes, no doubt, I don't want to be overly critical, but there were a lot of failures.
Too many, in my opinion, and it wasn't any full-scale commitment to wiping these people out.
Now, under Trump, he's been in office, gosh, not even a year, Joe, and they've been routed overseas.
Now, if you're trying to maintain recruits and money, and you're getting routed in your home base, basically, well, what are you going to do?
You're going to lash out by increasing your radicalization on foreign soil in the United States, on attacks on foreign soil, to get attention and to get money.
Sorry, got a little thick.
Skipped this version.
All right, something creeped up on my screen there.
Sorry, folks.
So you're going to lash out overseas in order to raise money and to get people into your ranks.
Makes sense, Joe?
Yep.
So just a couple takeaways.
Hey, one more thing on this I wanted to bring up.
Be prepared, folks.
Not just, you know, physically be prepared and mentally.
That's obvious.
You know, keep your head on a swivel.
You know, no need to panic.
Obviously, the chances of you being caught in a terrorist attack are probably equivalent of you being struck by lightning.
But always be prepared.
I bring that up.
But also be prepared for the sick, deranged liberal narrative that's coming.
Now, Joe, you know the liberals never bypass an opportunity to advance a narrative.
My narrative.
My narrative.
It's all about my narrative.
Gotta get the narrative.
Always the narrative.
Now, what do you think the liberal narrative is going to be today?
And folks, just to maybe prep you here, liberal narratives are never the truth.
They're the stories liberals want to tell.
You're clear on that, right Joe?
When I say the liberal narrative, we're not referring to the truth, right?
Right.
They lie.
Okay, you all get that.
It's a lie.
It's a story liberals want to tell to make Republicans and specifically Trump look terrible.
What do you think the liberal narrative is going to be on this?
It is now 10 o'clock a.m.
Eastern Time, 10.04 as we're recording, so I want you to timestamp that show.
It's timestamped.
The card is stamped.
Get this on the record.
The liberal narrative, it may be out there already because we just started recording and I haven't checked Twitter.
I've been with you all.
Will be, look what Trump did.
Look what he did announcing that Jerusalem, which is the capital of Israel, by the way, folks, is the, we're going to recognize it.
He didn't make Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
It is the capital of Israel.
They're going to say, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Oh my gosh, look what Trump did.
Mark my words, check it, click, timestamp it today.
I'm telling you it's going to happen because these are sick people.
It's not going to be all Democrats.
I'm not impugning the integrity of all Democrats out there.
Many of them will tell the truth.
A lot of Democrat voters understand that that's nonsense too.
But Joe, I'm telling you, if I can steal a line from Rush again, don't doubt me.
This will be the narrative going forward because it's never about the truth.
It's always about taking tragedy and making it reflect poorly on the president rather than tell the truth.
They'll be like, Trump, oh my gosh, look at this.
Trump, this is a response to Trump.
And you know, of course, ISIS is going to play off that.
Sure.
So just putting that out there, folks.
Be prepared.
It's been time stamped.
Let's see.
All right.
Where do we go next?
Hey, interesting personal note, if I may.
So, I ran for Congress, as many of you know, in Congressional District 6 in Maryland, which is a heavily Democratic district.
I think it's a D plus 6 on the Cook Partisan Value Index.
Now, for perspective, I'm not sure if there's a Republican in the country elected in a district that's a D Democrat plus 5 or greater.
The plus number is how weighted to the Democrat party that is.
You can have an R plus whatever as well.
You know, you can have an R plus 20, an R plus 5, that means it's a heavily Republican state.
The district I ran in was a heavily Democratic district that was gerrymandered It used to be heavily Republican.
It wasn't R plus 11 as Joe's old buddy Roscoe Bartlett was in there in Congressional District 6 in Maryland.
They redistricted it and they did it to get the Republican Roscoe Bartlett out and move John Delaney in.
They're actually their guy.
They had a different guy in mind.
Delaney kind of was an outsider that beat them at their own game.
But a Democrat did win the district.
They switched it from an R plus 11, so just to be clear, a heavily Republican district, to a heavily Democratic district, a D plus 6, which I think is what it is now.
When they switched the district, Roscoe Bartlett was the Republican congressman who used to win Joe by, you know, 20 points each time, lost the election by, I think it was 21 points, which is a rout to the Democrat in the new district.
So we're clear?
I know you know the story, but I'm checking for the audience.
Well, I ran against John Delaney, who beat the Republican the next time, and I was told by everybody, uh, this is crazy, you're nuts, what are you doing, you're gonna get destroyed, this guy beat the Republican by 20 plus points, he's the wealthiest Democrat in Congress, uh, he's, people like him, even some Republicans like him, this is a hugely Democrat district now, it's been gerrymandered, you have Montgomery County, which is largely liberal, which, overwhelmingly liberal, probably more precise.
Everybody told me not to do it.
Well, folks, we, We won that race on election day.
If you go to the Maryland State Board of Elections and look, we won on election day by 3,000 votes.
We lost later on the absentee count.
I think AP called the race four days later.
It was devastating.
Some of you might not know that story.
Some of you might.
Why am I bringing this up now?
It's not to flatter myself with stories of almost winning a race.
Joe, just last time I checked, there's no silver medals in Congress, right?
No second place.
No, no, there is no second place trophy.
There's no like, all right, we'll split it up.
Delaney gets a vote one day.
No, it doesn't work that way.
There's nothing flattering about losing.
The reason I'm bringing this up, Joe, is I don't know if you saw the story, but this is going to the Supreme Court.
You're like, well, what?
Dan Bongino?
No, not me personally.
The gerrymander, a very entrepreneurial person, sued, who lived in the old 6th district.
You know, he was redistricted out and said, hey, this gerrymander, he sued under a very unique theory.
And the Supreme Court is going to take this case based on my race.
This is hysterical.
Wow.
So just to, yeah.
The theory was, the guy said, listen, I'm suing because I was retaliated against.
For political speech.
Well, political action.
I voted Republican, the Democrats came in, redistricted me out of my old district into a new Democrat district, and now my voice can't be heard because the congressman is Democrat instead of Republican.
Very... I may be butchering it a little bit, but that's according to my reading of it, that's what he's suing for, and the Supreme Court is going to hear this case on gerrymandering.
Now, just to wrap this up quick before I move on, because I got a ton of stuff to get to.
What's fascinating is the Democrats are going to use me, your trusty host Dan Bongino, as an argument as to why they didn't politically retaliate.
Now, if you're listening, I know you know where I'm going with this, but the audience is probably right now going, what are you talking about?
You're a conservative.
Why would the Democrats use you?
Well, The lawsuit is saying, listen, you made this an unwinnable district for Republicans when it used to be a Republican district.
We clear, Joe?
Yep.
You made it unwinnable to punish us for voting Republican and John Delaney won.
Well, the Democrats come back because I won the darn thing on election day and lost on the absentee count is going to be, this is how devious these people are, Joe.
It's gonna be, well, Bongino almost won.
He only lost by a point in the end, so obviously if we were gerrymandering it to punish someone, we didn't do such a good job because the Republican Dan Bongino almost won.
I'm like, I can't, I can't escape these people.
I can't escape these, really, I cannot escape these people.
Liberal Democrats in Maryland.
Even when I do the right thing and I run a spirited race against, at the time, what I think You know, Delaney and I are friends.
He's a nice enough guy.
You know, he's a Democrat.
You know, he really is.
I'm not going to tell you a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, but I don't agree with the man's politics.
But I'm telling you, as a man and as someone who wants to do the right thing here, he was always very good to me.
It is never personal.
But it is an interesting and novel political argument that because the Republican ran a spirited race against Delaney, who I don't think at the time took me seriously.
I don't think it's personal, Joe.
I just think he realized it was a heavily Republican, I mean, Democrat district and was like, ah, you know, we'll beat this guy handily.
And then two weeks out, he's like, wait, wait, the polls say what?
Well, Gino may witness.
What do you mean?
And I think you may get him to admit that a little bit, too, that he didn't take us that seriously.
So, I mean, because he ran again in the last election and won pretty handily when he finally realized that he was in a dogfight.
Just interesting that my name may be popping in the Supreme Court off the Democrats' tongues.
Just fascinating how this happens.
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All right.
I read a story this weekend that most of you see me on camera know I'm, you know, I don't have a lot of hair left.
I'm not balding at all.
I don't have a receding hairline.
Like, you know, neither does Joe.
If you ever met Joe at CPAC, he does look like Elvis.
Like people recognize Joe just because he looks like Elvis.
He has the mane and everything is the Elvis hair.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
But my hairline is not receding either, but if you see me on camera, which I'll be a lot today, why am I talking about my hair?
I saw a story, oh, oh, oh!
Which one's that?
Oh, oh, I know, I know.
For a second there, I'm like, where are you going with this?
I was ready to pull out my remaining strains of hair this weekend, even though I'm not losing it, because I read this story and it was infuriating, and it was in the Wall Street Journal.
The story is about the Apple windfall from the proposed tax cuts.
The windfall, Joe.
The windfall's coming.
The Apple windfall.
And I read this and I'm like, uh, really?
Here's the Democrats' new theory.
Remember, the narrative.
It's about the narrative.
Every time.
The narrative.
It's always BS with the left.
You just have to figure out where the BS is and point it out.
So, here's the story.
The story in the journal is that this tax cut, if it goes through, is going to lead to an Apple quote, windfall of 47 billion dollars.
What?
Reminds me of that Spider-Man movie with that, not the Tobey Maguire guy, the Andrew Garfield, the other guy.
When Aunt May walks in the room, and he's got all the dust on his face from his fights the night before his Spider-Man, and she's like, Peter, what's up with your face?
He goes, oh, I was cleaning the chimney.
She goes, we don't have a chimney.
And he goes, what?
That's the funniest part in no movie.
I love it.
That's one of these.
Apple's going to get a $47 billion windfall from taxes?
a 47 billion dollar windfall from taxes? What? Okay, liberal logic wins the day again because
the narrative this is what they do and people will scoop this up.
Here's what's actually going on.
Under the current broken disgusting tax system we have now of the highest corporate tax rate in the organized economies of the world of 35% folks, that's our current corporate tax rate now.
Apple technically would owe about $78.6 billion in taxes on money, Joe.
Follow me here, it has overseas.
Apple.
Now, if the GOP plan, if the GOP tax plan passes, The Apple tax load burden on overseas money would be $31.4 billion.
Now, when you subtract the two, you will get $47 billion.
So the liberals are like, oh my gosh, we're giving Apple $47 billion?
No!
No, you're not giving Apple anything.
Listen, Apple's like a largely liberal company, okay?
Disclosure, I own some stock in Apple.
Not a ton.
I have an iPhone.
I like it.
But it's a largely left-leaning company, Apple.
Everybody knows it.
I have no love or dislove for Apple.
I don't care.
I like their phone.
It's easy to use.
That's it.
Simple as that.
Case closed, right?
But folks, lying about Apple, acting like you're giving them money that's their own, number one, is entirely disingenuous, and number two, is a total misreading of what's actually going on.
Now, Joe, you may say to yourself, and many listeners may say, well, you didn't, that is a windfall, Dan.
If they were going to pay 78 billion in taxes, and now they're going to pay 31.4, that is a $47 billion windfall.
That is a 47 billion dollar windfall.
No!
One, it's their money, but number two, here's the takeaway, folks.
Peace.
Joe, let me ask you a question.
Sure, Dan.
If the tax rate is 35% on... This is going to be a tough one, so get ready.
If your tax rate, Joe, is 35% on zero dollars, I'm going to give you a second to think about this.
35% tax rate, Joe, on no money.
How much are you paying in taxes?
Let's see.
35 on... You got Jay Zabikus there?
Yeah.
Making a return to the show?
Yeah.
Jay Zabikus is back.
I know this is tough, but 35% of zero is?
Oh, that's zero, Dan.
Zero!
Dude!
Jay Zabicus scores again!
Thank heavens.
Really.
Joe, I'll tell you what, man.
You are skilled being able to operate that abacus like no man on the planet.
35% of zero is zero!
Yes it is!
Apple was not bringing the money back!
This is, oh man, this is what's so infuriating.
Again, every morning you wake up, what liberal crap am I gonna have to debunk today?
35% of zero money is zero.
In other words, there was no, the only windfall here Joe, air quotes windfall, is not to Apple, It's to the U.S.
Treasury!
Now, Joe, you have Jay's abacus handy again?
Yes, I do, Dan.
All right, Jay.
Here we go.
Now, if the federal government was getting zero money before because Apple had the money overseas and was not bringing it back, okay?
Zero.
You got that number in your head?
The federal government, zero money.
The Treasury's getting zero money, okay?
GOP passes a tax bill and then Apple says, wait, the taxes are lower?
You know what?
I think we're going to bring that money back now because of this tax reform and we're going to pay $31 billion.
This is complicated math.
Get ready for this.
Okay.
Joe.
Yes.
What is a larger number here?
You're going to need the abacus for this.
Okay.
Let me settle in here.
Zero.
You got that?
Or 31 billion.
Go.
Larger number?
What is the larger number?
Uh, 31 billion.
31 billion!
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
ARMA costs two for two.
Thank the Lord for Jay's abacus.
Man, we would be lost.
We don't even need a calculator because Joe is so skilled moving that abacus quick.
This guy's a genius.
Folks, the windfall here is quite clearly a windfall to the United States government, not to Apple.
Apple's paying nothing.
Folks, how do I say this in any simpler terms?
They are paying zero U.S.
taxes.
They are paying foreign taxes on the money overseas, to be clear.
They're not paying the U.S.
corporate tax.
The money's overseas.
Zero.
Donut.
Nothing.
Oh, people use them interchangeably when they give their phone numbers.
440.
No, it's 440.
It's a circular object and it has no beginning and no end.
You ever see them?
Like kids draw them.
You go like this.
You start at a point and you make a circle and then you connect.
Zero!
They're not paying anybody!
The only windfall is to the U.S.
Treasury that now gets $31 billion as Apple goes, hey, you know what, now that the tax rates are a little more efficient for us.
Sorry, I'm laughing at myself again, which you should never do.
I know, but this is funny stuff.
The $31 billion is going into the Treasury that was never there, folks.
This is not complicated.
That's the only question you need to ask your liberal friends as the Apple windfall comes up.
Wait, wait, who's getting, who is actually getting money here?
Wait, liberal friends, time out.
Under the hood for review, throw the red flag.
Who is getting money here?
Oh, oh, Apple's getting windfall.
Who's Apple getting the money from?
Uh... Apple?
Who's Apple getting, Apple's not getting any money.
Apple's writing a check for 31 billion dollars to the U.S.
Treasury.
How is that a windfall for Apple?
Joe.
Yeah.
You and I are neither rich nor poor.
We do okay.
But, you know, it's going to be a tough question again, so prepare yourself.
$31 billion, based on your income right now.
Is that a little money?
A mid-level decent amount of money?
Or is that a mm-ton of money you can fill in the blank?
Dan, that would be a mm-ton of money.
Yes, it would!
Folks, 31 billion dollars!
The entire budget of the state of Florida is only like 80 billion!
Apple alone is going to finance like half of Florida and they're like, oh man, what a windfall for Apple.
Oh yeah.
Oh, Apple makes out like bandits on this one, folks.
Cutting a check for 31 B's.
Are you kidding?
Oh, I saw this.
This is what I wanted to lead off today on the show, but obviously we had this horrible terror attack, but I had to cover this, even in light of the horrible circumstances, because it just goes to show you the narrative.
It's always about the narrative, the narrative, the narrative.
We got to advance the narrative.
Even when the truth is so incredibly obvious that you have to have a skull 76 inches thick to not understand what I'm telling you.
Apple's cutting a check for 31 billion dollars and is somehow getting a windfall.
Oh man, can you be this dumb?
That's the only question.
Oh gosh.
It's funny.
We're not a comedy show, but sadly there's so much good material out there, sometimes we morph into it.
Where do you go after that?
No, I know, like where do you go?
I mean, sadly there's like four or five different things here too I want to get to, but they really threw me for a loop with everything this morning.
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All right.
Let's see.
You know what?
Here's a quick one I want to knock out, too, because it's just, again, indicative of how liberals just wake up every morning and just make stuff up.
Like, what are we going to lie about today?
Taxes?
I got another one.
How about the Hillsdale exemption?
You're like, what the heck?
This one's a doozy.
I'll put an article up in the show notes about it.
Please go read it at Bongino.com and you can subscribe to my email list.
So, there was a senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley.
Democrat, of course.
And in the tax bill, again, this is totally made up.
It's all about the narrative.
The narrative, okay?
So the three narratives we have today, just to readdress her, Trump's, this is coming out soon, I promise you, Trump did this today through his recognition of the Jerusalem capital, number one.
Second narrative is going to be Apple's getting a windfall despite writing a 31 billion dollar check to the treasury.
The third narrative that started coming out last week about another, you know, attempt to debunk the tax bill, It's gonna be that Hillsdale College, which is a conservative-leaning institution of higher learning, again, disclosure, I know Larry Arnn, who has been at Hillsdale forever.
We're not buddies, we're not close friends, but I know him, I spoke to him at an event last week.
But the narrative here, Joe, is that there's an exemption being made in the tax bill for the, oh, what just happened there?
Sorry, my TV just went off.
for this college mainly because it's a conservative institution.
Entirely made up.
So here's what Merkley said, this democrat senator.
He said that Hillsdale, oh let me just describe the exemption first.
I'm sorry I should have done because I do that sometimes I skip past the core of the story.
In the tax bill, there is a condition that some institutions of higher learning, if they have endowments of a certain size, Joe, in other words, bank accounts of a certain size that are under the endowment clause, they're going to have to pay taxes, an excise type tax, on that endowment, okay?
It's not every institution, but it's based on the size and the student population.
Now, There was an exemption in the bill that was put in there for institutions that don't take federal funds.
Now, so we tracking on this?
Yeah.
They won't have to pay the excise tax if the institution of higher learning, the college or university, does not take federal funds.
Now, Hillsdale is not the only one, so it is not the Hillsdale exemption.
There are about 10 of these institutions of higher learning in the United States.
Now, Hillsdale's become a convenient target by Merkley because it's a conservative institution.
And he said, this is like the clown show up in Capitol Hill.
There's a quote from him.
Merkley said that Hillsdale should, quote, quit taking federal funds because of discrimination.
Oh!
Oh, they're discriminating?
Holy Moses!
Here we go again.
They will fit the word discrimination into anything, the Democrats.
I swear, Merkley had to sit down in front of a focus group and go, Let's see, guys.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to lie about the, quote, Hillsdale exemption that ironically doesn't only exempt Hillsdale.
Like, if it's the Joe Armacost exemption, it exempts Joe Armacost, right?
Yeah.
But it's named after you because it would be only Joe.
But that's not the case.
This is an exemption based on colleges that don't take federal funds, of which Hillsdale happens to be one of them.
But OK, let's call it the Hillsdale exemption because they're a conservative college.
Let's attack them.
I'm a Democrat.
And what do we say to advance our cause?
Discrimination!
Let's do it!
Bingo!
Yeah!
We got it!
That's right!
In that voice!
That's exactly how they did it, Joe!
You're absolutely salivating!
Like blood coming from the fangs!
Yeah!
We got it!
We got it!
Discrimination, guys!
Get on the floor and say that quick!
Now!
That's good.
He says, Hillsdale needs to quit taking federal funds because of discrimination.
Okay, you're wrong, Merkley.
If you are in Oregon and this guy's your senator, please email this guy's office.
You know, I get it, I'm not lecturing anybody, but we always do stuff respectfully where conservatives will leave the violence for the liberal Antifa crowd, right?
But I would really request that you email this guy and say, please explain that away.
They should quit taking federal funds?
Joe, are you following what I'm telling you here?
How is Halesdale exempt from a tax if it's a college that doesn't take federal funds?
Because that's the exemption.
If you don't take federal funds, taxpayer dollars, you don't have to pay the tax.
Which seems fair to me, Joe, right?
Yes.
You're not getting taxpayer money.
Why should you pay the tax?
Right.
How are they supposed to quit taking federal funds if they don't take federal funds?
That's pretty Merkley water there, Dan.
Dude, that was good.
See, you're a witty cat.
I'm not.
I don't think of stuff like that.
That is Merkley Water.
You're in Merkley Water now.
You have to be in Merkley Water because the statement makes no sense.
The exemption to the tax bill, which is not a Hillsdale exemption, that's just made up, by the way, is for institutions that don't take federal funds.
Who now a Democrat Senator is like, and they say this stuff with like no fear of the media ever checking them because it's the media.
And it's a Democrat Senator and he'll be protected because that's what they do.
They do like opposition force protection for Democrats, the media.
So the first part is completely fabricated and he knows it.
So either he's a complete ignoramus or a liar.
Alright, there's no option three.
He's either really dumb or he's lying to you.
Merkley.
Is there a third option there?
There isn't.
No.
Okay.
Second part of that, because of they should quit taking federal funds, nonsense, because of discrimination.
Now, this is hysterical.
One of the reasons Hillsdale, one of many, does not take, and again, I didn't get their talking points.
Someone told me to say this.
I just, I get Imprimis, which is their, uh, they send out a free newsletter, you know, and it's great.
It's terrific.
It's, I highly recommend it by the way.
It's called Imprimis.
It's free.
You don't have to pay for it.
But one of the reasons Hillsdale doesn't take federal funds is because they don't want to deal with the federal bureaucracy and the insane rules they impose upon institutions, Joe, that do take federal funds.
So, Joe, this is...
This is gonna bother you.
This is hugely controversial what Hillsdale does, so get ready.
Prepare yourself mentally for this just horrific thing I'm about to tell you about what Hillsdale does, okay?
This is tough.
You ready?
Have you insulated yourself morally, ethically, spiritually, and psychologically from the incredibly traumatizing statement I'm about to make?
I'm ready, Dan.
You're ready, okay.
Hillsdale admits students based solely on merit.
[GASP]
[SCREAMING]
What?
On merit?
Oh my.
That is... I mean, I know.
Were you sitting down when I told you that?
Yeah, thank goodness.
Thank God.
I know you're lightheaded.
You have water near you.
Take maybe electrolytes, maybe a nitric oxide lozenge.
I have them here.
I'll send you some up.
This is traumatizing stuff.
Hillsdale admits people on merit?
So let me get this straight.
It's an institution of higher learning that admits students into its learning environment based on their ability to wait, wait for it, wait for this, to learn.
Oh my gosh.
Get them.
This is definitely, this is time for the lynch mob.
You need to go get Hillsdale.
Folks, I'm not kidding.
I'm like crying right now because I can't, if I don't laugh, if I don't, I'm seriously, it's like, because I'm laughing so hard inside, like I'm shedding, I wish I had a ditto cam going.
I had to keep some tissues here.
I'm not making this up!
They're using the word discrimination because that's what Democrats do, because everything's discrimination to Democrats.
Because Hillsdale admits people based on merit.
Yes, Joe, they're discriminating based on your ability to learn in an institution of learning.
That's like saying... I'm not kidding.
Joe, is this analogy true or not?
I mean, if it's questionable, tell me.
But is that not the equivalent of saying The Yankees, who traded for Giancarlo Stanton, who's one of the great hitters in the league for the Marlins this weekend.
Joe, isn't that the equivalent of saying they discriminated against all the other hitters in the league because they didn't pick them up because Giancarlo Stanton had a better ability to hit a baseball?
I'd say that's an analogy.
Yes, you know the word.
It's an analogous analogy.
I would say that that's right.
Folks, they are not discriminating.
They're selecting based on an attribute necessary to succeed in their institution.
No different than a basketball team or a baseball team chooses their number three hitter on their ability to hit a darn baseball.
Got lost there.
It was funny.
It's funny because it's part of the show, man.
This is what we do.
We have a natural back and forth, people seem to think.
But it's funny stuff because this is what they do.
This is how they wake up in the morning and they manipulate you.
They choose very specific words to gaslight you.
And we've spoken about gaslighting before.
The continuous reinforcement of a false story Say it confidently, say the story over and over, and isolate people from the truth, and eventually you'll get people to believe in nonsense.
You can get people to believe in the tooth fairy, just like you do your kids.
You isolate them from the truth.
You tell them it confidently, right Joe?
You say to them, you know, we're kids, we, you know, we're adults, we mess around with our kids.
We tell them, hey, the tooth fairy, put your tooth under, you know, under the pillow and they're going to leave you, you know, a dollar or five dollars, or if you're really rich, twenty dollars or whatever, right?
Who knows, maybe some people get a hundred underneath the belt.
I know I did.
I got like a quarter, right?
I got a quarter.
But we tell them that.
Sorry for the sniffles.
I'm really laughing my butt off.
But this is no different than what the Democrats do.
You tell your kid the story confidently, right?
You don't waver, right Joe?
When you told your kid the story of the tooth fairy, little Joe, you're like, oh Joe, this is great.
The tooth fairy's coming.
Make sure you get that.
You say it excitedly like you believe it.
This is what they do.
Discrimination, discrimination, discrimination by Hillsdale.
It's false.
You know, it's false.
Now, if there's kids listening, I know some people, I'm going to bypass that part of the story.
You get where I'm going, right?
But you say it confidently over and over and over again, but then you isolate them from the truth.
You don't let the alternate version, you get where I'm going with this Joe?
You don't let people come into your house and say other things, you know what I'm saying?
Right.
This is what the media does for Democrats by reinforcing the narrative and then parroting this talking point.
Discrimination!
And all of a sudden people believe a false story that is not in fact correct.
That's what gaslighting is.
The media are experts at this and so is the Democrats.
All right.
Man, I'm dying here.
A good story in the journal today.
I'm going to wrap with this one.
Can a POTUS, can a sitting president of the United States obstruct justice?
I say POTUS.
You know, when we were in, just a little behind the scenes, we were in the Secret Service, we would alternate back and forth.
You know, every industry or whatever, operation out there has jargon, medicine, legal jargon.
Joe has radio jargon.
Joe's always throwing radio jargon.
I rarely know what he's talking about.
He's like, we're gonna do a donut and an island and a sot, and I'm like, what the heck is all the sots I figured out recently?
But he was explaining to me last week about a donut and an ad, and I'm like, this guy's been doing this too long.
He has all this jargon.
I never know what he's talking about.
Every industry has it, right?
And the Secret Service, we used to go back and forth between calling the President, you know, POTUS, I remember with Bush, or 43, or we'd call him, you know, Trailblazer.
That was his Secret Service name.
It's all out there.
It's not like secret stuff anymore.
But we would alternate between that stuff.
So that's why I said POTUS.
I'm trying to impress you with all my jargon stuff.
But kind of sitting President of the United States obstruct justice.
There's a really interesting piece by Rivkin and Casey this morning, David Rivkin in the Wall Street Journal.
About the firing Comey, and I told you I'm not going to re-litigate this whole thing because I've spoken about it on the show repeatedly.
I don't like to repeat shows, but I said to you a while ago how when the Democrats give up on the collusion Russia narrative, because it's nonsense, there's nothing there to prove.
As a matter of fact, Andy McCarthy has a terrific piece in National Review, I'll put in the show notes about, forget about Russian collusion, the Democrats are having a tough time.
Russians even impacted the election, no less colluded to impact the election.
It's a really good piece.
I'll put it in the show notes.
So I had said to you, When that dies, they are going to immediately move on to an obstruction of justice narrative because they want to find something on Trump, even if they have to, you know, make it up.
So their narrative now is that he fired Jim Comey, the president, President Trump, and he fired Comey to obstruct justice.
And Rivkin and Casey have a really good piece saying, well, that's impossible.
Can the president obstruct justice?
Yes, of course, folks.
But he can't obstruct justice for exercising his constitutional authority.
Now, here's a quote from the piece.
It's a good one.
The Constitution forbids Congress to criminalize such conduct by a sitting president, and it can't apply existing statutes in such a manner that would violate the separation of powers.
In other words, applying an obstruction of justice statute Ex post facto to a clear execution of presidential powers the firing of the FBI director which nobody questions he has the authority to do Joe.
Think about the what that I took a couple of notes here on think about where that what that what would happen.
Number one you have no idea what the president's motive is for firing Comey.
You can speculate, right, Joe?
I mean, I can speculate on all kinds of things.
I can speculate why you called me at 9.58 today rather than 9.57.
I don't know.
Maybe Joe got a drink of water.
I have no idea.
I can speculate on it, but I wasn't there.
So criminalizing the president's motive, oh, he obstructed justice because he exercised his power, opens a really, really dangerous pathway, Joe.
What's next?
I mean, prosecuting the president for murder because he authorizes a SEAL team somewhere in South Africa to take out an enemy combatant somewhere?
I'm dead serious!
Why not?
Why not?
Oh, gosh, you know, it was an American citizen down there or something happened that got hurt and the president's guilty of murder.
I mean, do you understand how you would expand the jurisdiction of the Congress and the courts and you would diminish the presidency to just a puppet?
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Second.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, baby.
The second point here.
Folks, the president is accountable already.
I'm saying, oh, the president's not going to be accountable because he can't be convicted or charged with a crime for exercising his authority.
The president commits a clear criminal act.
As, you know, asking someone to go do something illegal or anything like that.
Of course he can be charged.
The president's not above the law.
But exercising his authority, he is not subjected to criminal statutes because he is accountable, Joe.
He's accountable, number one, politically.
It's called an election.
He won't be re-elected, likely.
And secondly, he's accountable through impeachment.
He is accountable.
That is the check on his power.
Now, this is the important point and the takeaway I don't want you to miss here.
If we are now going to engage in a conversation about the president obstructing justice for exercising his lawful power to fire the FBI director, Joe, isn't any FBI director in the future then insulated almost altogether from being terminated?
Right, yeah.
Not a trick question for you, Joe.
Do we elect the FBI director?
No, we don't, Dan.
No, we don't, Dan.
No, we don't.
Now, what happened?
You think the government, you worried about government in the past?
At least you don't like the president.
You can impeach him or not re-elect him.
Right, Joe?
You have those two options.
Nobody disputes that.
Impeach, you can impeach him or you cannot re-elect him.
He is accountable, just not in the way you like it because you want to put him in handcuffs, Trump, because you're maniacs on the left.
But now you have an FBI director who can't be fired at all?
So you have a guy, let's just be clear on this, you have a guy once he's appointed, right, who has the power to institute an investigation against almost any American citizen, who now can't be touched ever, and you think that's the idea, that yeah, that's where we need to go to streamline the powers of government, put a perimeter around the fence of government.
Are you insane?
It's a really good piece in the Wall Street Journal today.
I encourage you to go check it out.
But folks, no.
The answer is clearly, absolutely no.
The president cannot obstruct justice for exercising his constitutional power.
The check on his power is an election and impeachment.
Wake up, lefties.
We're getting tired of your nonsense.
All right, folks, thanks again for tuning in.
I really appreciate it.
Please go to bongino.com, subscribe to my email list, and I'll send you these articles right to your inbox every day.
I'll see you all tomorrow.
You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
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